Pygmalion in the 21st Century: the Arrival of Sex Bots in J. Winterson’s Frankisstein

This essay examines the endurance and adaptation of the Pygmalion myth in Jeanette Winterson’s dystopian novel Frankissstein (2019). Drawing upon Queer Theory and Posthumanist Feminism, this study explores how the text redefines the limits of the human body and gender construction in the 21st century. Through a comparative analysis of the fluid, transgender body of Ry and the mass-produced, hyper-commodified sex bots presented at the Memphis Convention by the character Ron Lord, I argue that the technological re-enactment of the Pygmalion myth functions as a tool for patriarchal evasion. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates how the capitalist production of artificial women serves to detach male desire from female human beings, positioning the contemporary consumer as a technogenic demigod while systematically marginalizing real women.